


High School Reunion

by storm_8



Series: Family Snapshots [7]
Category: Rizzoli & Isles
Genre: F/F, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-02
Updated: 2013-07-02
Packaged: 2017-12-17 12:02:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/867300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storm_8/pseuds/storm_8
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jane did not want to go to her high school reunion - she wasn't Mrs. Whoever and she did not have a south end brownstone... She had a wife, one of her children wasn't biologically hers and another was an adopted teenager who thrived on not listening to her at all. And her mother lived in the guest house across the driveway.<br/>But they went anyway, and hell if it wasn't the best thing ever!</p>
            </blockquote>





	High School Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own the show or its characters. I merely borrow them for everyone's enjoyment.  
> I do own the original characters: I am quite fond of them!  
> All mistakes are mine.
> 
> Spoilers: Season 2 Episode 13 "Seventeen Ain't So Sweet" - My take on what would happen if Jane took Maura and the kids to her high school reunion
> 
> It's late but I wanted to post this now instead of tomorrow, so if there are more mistakes than usual I apologize.

Jane was lounging on the bed in her underwear and a thin robe, scrolling through the five text messages she’d received from her mother in the last hour, while Maura puttered about in their enormous closet – really, two thirds of the space were taken by Maura’s numerous fit-for-a-Paris-runway outfits – searching for something she’d deem appropriate for her lover to wear for the evening ahead.

Scoffing in utter bewilderment at the last message from her mother,

 

_Janie, don’t you dare wear a men’s three piece suit! I don’t want you perpetuating the stereotype of the butch lesbian!_ (Where the _HELL_ did her mother even _hear_ about butch lesbians and men’s three piece suits, or any stereotypes?!)

_And don’t forget to bring over the sugar before you leave!_ (God, the woman lives just across the driveway, why can’t she come get the sugar herself?!)

_Love you! Give kisses to my grandbabies!_

 

the brunette threw the phone onto the bed and looked up when Maura triumphantly stuck an arm out of the closet and held out a purple dress. “Et voilà!” Jane scrunched up her face in distaste. The other woman popped out of the closet with a smile, which disappeared at the expression on her lover’s face. “What? Don’t make a face! It’s cute!”

Jane scoffed. “Well, yeah, if you’re playing Mahjong…”

“So why did you buy it?” The blonde inquired.

“Cause it was half off…” The detective replied with a suffering sigh. “Just- Donations pile.” She waved to the foot of the bed, where a few of her outfits were laid out for charitable donations. “This is ridiculous! Why do we have to go to my high school reunion?” The woman whined, burrowing further into the pillows at her back. “I don’t wanna go to my high school reunion!”

“You know there are three reasons that people avoid their high school reunions?” Maura offered, sitting down on the bed next to her grumbling lover.

“Yeah! One, they hated high school. Two, they hated everybody _in_ high school-” Jane opened her mouth to express the third reason, but couldn’t think of it. “What’s the third one?” She asked.

The doctor smiled amusedly and then replied. “Embarrassment over getting fat.” A pause. “Then there’s fear over running into your ex or your abject failure. Why don’t _you_ want to go?”

“Abject failure.” The detective answered flatly. “Got a wife instead of a husband, one of my kids isn’t biologically mine, another is adopted and has authority issues that last for days, my mother lives _with_ me, I have no south end brownstone… That was, you know, _the_ _THING_ when I was in high school…”

Maura promptly smacked her smirking lover with a pillow to the face.

Just down the hall, Kenzie sat on the edge of a green, Disney-princess themed bed watching in amusement as Sarah tried to shimmy her arms and head into the pale blue dress she was holding out, only succeeding in getting her hair tangled and her right arm stuck in the fabric, and then dissolving into giggles.

The older girl chuckled, pulling the dress off the little giggling mess and shaking it out. “Let’s try this one limb at the time…” She suggested, getting to her feet and holding out the dress again.

Sarah looked up at her sister with a wide smile and stood up on the bed.

“Ok, arms up!” Kenzie directed, the little girl giggling again and sticking her arms up. The dark haired girl carefully slid the dress over the little blonde’s arms and head, pulling it down her body gently until it was flowing around her knees. “That’s more like it. Now we need to fix your hair.” Sarah patted at the mess on her head and giggled adorably.

The 15 year old chuckled and looked around the room for the girl’s hairbrush, spotting it on the dresser opposite the bed. “Sit.” She playfully tapped a finger to her sister’s nose and then moved to get the brush, when there was a commotion by the door.

“Kennie, help.” Danny requested, walking into the room barefoot, wearing his black trousers with the belt undone and holding the green button-up shirt he was supposed to wear in his hand. For some reason, he had a tie wrapped around his head and Sarah found this absolutely hilarious, flopping onto her bed in a giggle fit. Daniel beamed and turned his sparkling eyes to his older sister.

“Why are you wearing a tie on your head?” The teen asked with a laugh. The five year old just grinned and shook his head around, the loose end of the tie flopping about.

And then Mike came stampeding into the room, naked except for his Superman boxers and the trousers pulled over his head.

“Oh my God!” Kenzie about died of laughter at the ridiculous scene. “Why do you have those on your head?! And where’s momma?” She tried to reign in her amusement and grasp some control of the situation.

Mike grinned and pointed down the hallway towards his mothers’ room. “Pillow fight!”

The girl started laughing again. “Has everyone gone _crazy_?” She power walked to the master bedroom, threw the door open and promptly stopped dead in her tracks, the amusement disappearing from her face to be replaced by an embarrassed flush. “Oh my God! I so don’t need to see _that_!” She slapped a hand over her eyes and gesticulated in the general direction of the bed where Maura was straddling a laughing Jane who had _clearly_ lost her robe.

“Hey there, Mackenzie!” The detective greeted merrily, throwing in a wave and wink for good measure.

The teenager looked offended. “Oh no! No, no, no, no! You don’t get to ‘Hey Mackenzie’ me! This is not acceptable!” She gestured wildly in their direction just as Mike and Danny ran into the room. Maura looked incredibly confused at her sons’ attire.

“That is such a good idea!” Jane crowed amidst her laughter. “We should all wear pants on our heads and go to my high school reunion. It would make it unforgettable!”

The two boys beamed brightly and promptly rushed to the bed to throw themselves onto their brunette mother. “Yeah, Ma!”

“What is _wrong_ with everyone today?!” Kenzie moaned and slapped a hand to her face. She stomped to the bed and hauled her two brothers away from a _still_ laughing Jane and hastily left the room, muttering about women and crazies as she went.

Maura looked absolutely dumbfounded at what had just transpired.

******

 

“Can I wear my Superman tie?” Mike asked with a big grin from where he was jumping up and down on his bed, the pants still on his head.

Kenzie looked up from tucking Daniel’s green shirt into his trousers. “Are you going to wear _just_ the tie and boxers?” She asked with a raised eyebrow and an amused smile.

Mike laughed loudly and flopped onto his bed, _finally_ dislodging the garment from his head, which fell on the floor in a lump.

“Can I wear _this_?” Daniel asked, grabbing the floppy end of the tie wrapped on his head and flicking it at his sister’s face. The girl snorted and shook her head.

“No. But you can wear the Green Lantern one. Then it’ll match your shirt and you and Mike can embarrass Jane by playing superheroes at the reunion.”

The boys laughed and nodded vigorously, Michael jumping up and diving head first into the closet to find the superhero ties that uncle Tommy had given them on their last birthday.

“Kennie, you look pretty.” Daniel said with a grin as the girl unwrapped the tie from his head and set it on his bed.

Kenzie looked at her little brother with a smile. “Do I?” She was wearing dark blue jeans, a black tank top and a dark yellow short-sleeved shirt that she’d left unbuttoned.

The little boy beamed and kissed her cheek, tugging playfully on her ponytail.

The 15 year old was incredibly amused. “You are a little charmer aren’t you?” She sat back on her heels and reached into her back pocket to pull out the tie she had grabbed off her shelf but never got the chance to put on when Sarah had come giggling into her room searching for help with her dress. “Do you think I should wear this too?” She grinned and wiggled the accessory in front of the wide eyed 5 year old.

“ _Iron Man_!” Danny exclaimed excitedly, bouncing on his bare feet. “Mike, Mike! Look!” He called his twin, who popped out of the closet with the Superman and Green Lantern ties in his hands and what seemed to be a pile of socks on his head.

Kenzie snorted, the boy shaking his head vigorously to get rid of the socks and then rushing over to stare in awe at the yellow tie with Iron Man printed on it. “Kennie! So _cool_! We match!” Michael was practically jumping up and down, holding all three superhero ties and waving them about excitedly.

“What matches?” Came Jane’s voice from the doorway.

They turned as one to look at their mother. Mike promptly fell over from his bouncing about, the ties flying up into the air and landing on his head; Danny stood wide eyed and Kenzie gawked in utter shock. “ _Holy_ mother-!”

“What?!” The detective protested, looking down at herself and smoothing out imaginary wrinkles from the short, tight black dress she was wearing that Maura had _insisted_ would look great on her and showed off her legs nicely. “S’not like I’ve never worn a dress before!”

Michael swatted at the ties in his face and sat up, furrowing his brow at his mother. “Ma looks like a _girl_.” He said, poking at his older sister’s shoulder repeatedly.

“ _Hey_!” Jane exclaimed indignantly at the same time as Kenzie burst out laughing and Danny raced over to his Ma and proclaimed she looked very pretty.

******

 

Jane knocked on the guest house’s door and waited for her mother to come get the sugar (because she’d gotten four more text messages in the past half hour reminding her to bring over the damn sugar, along with three others on appropriate attire for the reunion and _another_ three on how she should not comment on Emily’s large breasts, throw pudding at Debbie Nichols – it happened _once_ , she was 11 years old for crying out loud – or push Kate’s face into the spaghetti sauce – okay, that one she was rather proud of).

The detective watched in amusement as Mike and Danny engaged in a two person monologue on the awesomeness of superhero ties and how cool it was that Kenzie was wearing the red and gold Iron Man limited edition Nike sneakers (those had cost almost half a month’s worth of her salary) and her own superhero tie. Maura looked skeptic at her children’s choice of attire for the high school reunion, but she had actually been the one to get the girl those sneakers – Kenzie had almost cried when she’d opened the shoebox and then had hugged the doctor for a good ten minutes – so Jane knew her lover was very pleased that their adopted daughter seemed to be happy and that they were providing the loving and supportive family that she’d never had.

She watched with a fond smile as the blonde doctor fussed with the teen’s tie and then straightened out her shirt, Kenzie grinning widely at the woman and then giving her a short, tight hug. Maura chuckled and then ushered the excited twins towards the car just as Angela opened the door.

“Jane! There you are! I was beginning to think I’d have to get the sugar myself.” Jane scoffed indignantly, but her mother was not paying attention. “Oh look at my babies!” She brushed past the detective to lift a giggling Sarah into her arms and then dropped to her knees as Mike and Danny came barrelling towards her. “You all look so pretty!”

Jane rolled her eyes at the schmoozing she was witnessing and dropped the pack of sugar next to her mother’s purse. Then she tripped over her heels and almost fell flat on her face when she heard Mike saying she looked like a _girl_ in her dress. _Again_.

Kenzie cackled loudly from her place by the car and Angela sprung to her feet after depositing Sarah back on the ground and turned to look at her only daughter in wonder. “Awww, Jane!”

“Ma, no!” The brunette protested as the woman sniffled in pride, walking over to kiss her cheeks.

“Oh Jane, you look beautiful!” The older Rizzoli continued to gush as Jane attempted to escape her crying mother’s kisses and fussing. She looked pleadingly to her lover, but Maura merely smiled amusedly and then directed her children into the car.

Kenzie looked far too entertained with the detective’s predicament.

******

 

When Jane managed to extricate herself from her mother’s clutches and get in the car, she did so with a very put upon huff. Then she noticed that she’d gotten into the passenger seat, the only free seat available in the car. “Okay, why are _you_ driving?” She directed at her lover, crossing her arms and pouting. The children laughed from the back seat.

“I’m your designated driver, so you can go drink with your high school nemeses.” Maura offered with a bright smile.

The detective raised an eyebrow. “ _Sis_ , isn’t it _nemesis_?”

“ _Ses_ , when it’s plural. I’m sure you have many formidable enemies.”

The taller woman looked offended. “Oh and how are you so sure?” She mocked. The doctor just gave her a look and started the car. “Okay, yes, _fine_. There was one group of mean girls: Debbie and _Emily_ and _Kate_.” She growled out and slumped back in her seat.

In the backseat Kenzie listened to the women’s conversion with amused interest, while Sarah tugged on Mike’s Superman tie to get a better look.

“Great!” Maura put the car in reverse and backed out of the driveway. “So, we’re going to show Debbie, Emily and Kate how fabulous you turned out to be.”

Jane looked over suspiciously as her lover beamed her way and then directed the car onto the street and towards her former high school. “Hey! You just wanna tag along so you can go all Jane Goodall on me at my high school reunion because you got _imprisoned_ in an all-girls school!”

The medical examiner gaped. “I was _hardly_ imprisoned!” The detective gave her a pointed look. “But… yes. I… will admit that the co-ed experience… _interests_ me.

“Ha! I knew it!” The brunette pointed a finger accusingly, before reaching for the steering wheel when they stopped at a red light. “We are so turning around to go back home!”

“ _Jane_!” Maura chastised swatting at the other woman’s hands.

******

 

The Rizzoli-Isles family stood at the entrance of the Saint Dominic High School gym taking in the atmosphere. The younger children looked curiously around, Kenzie catalogued all the possible hiding places, nooks and crannies where the twins might disappear to if she was not careful and Jane watched her lover smile excitedly while sporting a decidedly speculative look herself.

“Okay, see? Co-ed high school.” The detective threw her arms out with fake enthusiasm. “You happy now? Let’s go!”

Maura rolled her eyes and turned to grab her hastily retreating lover, when someone called out for the detective. “Jane!” The women turned to find a grinning Giovanni waving at them.

“Oh no, it’s the G dude.” Mike whispered loudly, latching onto Kenzie’s jeans and bumping his head against her leg. The older girl snorted, hefting a babbling Sarah further up on her hip.

Jane moaned. “Another reason I didn’t want to come.” Maura looked the slightest bit terrified at seeing the man who had wanted to ‘lick her all over’ approaching them with a beer in hand.

“Hey!” Giovanni greeted them with a wide smile, glancing between the two women. “So, you two still uh-”

“Toge- Oh yes!” The detective quickly (and possessively) threw an arm around the blonde’s waist to pull her close and reached back blindly with her other arm to yank her eldest daughter forward by her tie. “We’re still very much together! With the children and all!”

The man looked to the four children – Kenzie was throwing a dirty look at the taller woman and the two boys were trying to disappear behind her legs to avoid looking at the crazy dude with the weird pepper necklace – then back to the two women and nodded in understanding.

“Shouldn’t you uh… run along? Isn’t there some ‘Barf of the Week’ club member you should be talking to?” Jane inquired.

Maura looked at her with a frown. “ _Barf of the Week_?”

“Won it five times!” Giovanni answered proudly, as the brunette woman mimed taking a drink and then putting a finger in her mouth to throw up as an explanation; the medical examiner gaped, looking mildly horrified. “It’s nice you two are still together. The longest relationship I ever had was 34 days… 35 if you count the break up sex.”

Kenzie stared at him with a raised eyebrow, while Jane looked on with a slightly disgusted face.

“We’ll count that!” Maura offered with fake cheer, hoping that her youngest children had not heard _that_. She would _not_ appreciate it if her sons started talking like Giovanni.

“Hi, G!” Someone called from a nearby table.

The group turned to see a beautiful, tanned woman in an auburn dress and with a light shawl over her shoulders walking over to them with a smile. Jane recognized the woman and threw her a friendly smile.

“Wow, hot right?”

The detective’s smile dropped almost instantly. Kenzie slapped a hand to her face in dismay; the man was hopeless.

“Hi!” Giovanni greeted the newcomer. “You know, you look just like Maria Korkman but… kinda like a hot, skinny version!”

Jane’s eyes widened in alarm and she started shaking her head. “Uh, Giovanni-”

“You remember her- Man, she was fat!” The mechanic said with a laugh, taking a drink from his beer bottle.

When the woman moved the shawl that was covering her nametag, Kenzie latched onto her mother’s arm with her free hand and groaned in consternation, knocking her head against the woman’s shoulder repeatedly.

“Hey Maria…” The brunette greeted with a grimace, patting the teenager’s hand in commiseration.

“Hey Jane.” Maria returned with a smile, then looking to Giovanni. “I’ve been working out.”

The mechanic glanced from the woman to her nametag and then back. “No way! You look so smokin’ hot, we’re gonna need a garden hose to cool you down…” His voice mingled with the surrounding noise, leaving the Rizzoli-Isles to stare after the pair with varying expressions of incredulity and shock.

“What… just happened?” Kenzie asked, disbelief colouring her tone.

“Ma, I’ma confused…” Danny stated, tapping his hand against the woman’s bare leg and tilting his head sideways.

Mike had long given up on the conversation with the crazy dude with the pepper necklace and was busy staring at his older sister’s awesome sneakers.

“Urgh!” Jane grumbled under her breath and grabbed her lover by the arm, dragging her along, just as little Sarah spotted the tray with cupcakes on the long table to their right and alerted the twins, who promptly started pushing and pulling their chuckling older sister to get them two chocolate cupcakes and a strawberry muffin.

“Oh look! Reason number four that people hate high school reunions.” The detective stopped short when she spotted the blonde woman manning the nametag line. “Mean girl Debbie Nichols.”

Maura nodded in understanding. “Humm, relational aggression typical of adolescent females.” The taller woman raised an eyebrow at that. “But she’s long past that…”

“Uh huh…” Jane scowled and then put on a fake smile when the woman noticed her presence.

“Oh my God, Jane Rizzoli! Oh, it’s probably not Rizzoli now, it’s Mrs…?”

“Mrs… _Detective_ … Jane Rizzoli… cause there’s no Mr.- _You_?” The brunette quickly changed the subject not wanting to explain how she was actually married to a woman. She wanted to spare Maura, and herself, any possible judgemental comments and gawking.

“I’m Mrs. Eddie Tibbet.” The blonde replied with a big smile, turning slightly to point out her husband.

Jane was shocked. “You married Eddie Tibbet?!”

“Hey, Jane!” The man came rushing over, giving the detective a hug and a warm smile.

“Hey, Eddie.” The brunette gave her first genuine smile of the evening and returned the hug. “Look at you. In a _suit_! Wow!” The man grinned and wrapped an arm around his wife’s waist.

“Can you believe it? Me and Eddie?” Debbie asked with a laugh.

“Oh!” Maura had watched the scene unfold in silence, but she was now curious to know if her lover’s surprise had anything to do with the couple having been from different social groups back in high school. “You mean, because you were part of the mean girls click?”

Jane would have been embarrassed, but the medical examiner looked genuinely curious and the dig had flown right over Debbie’s head.

“Eddie, what click were you a part of?”

“The computer geek click.” The man answered with a friendly smile.

“Oh! Me too!” Maura responded and the conversation devolved into talk of geeks and science and plant activism.

“And there she goes…” Kenzie commented with a grin from the other side of the table, nodding toward the grinning medical examiner. The children had made their way after their mothers after eating their cupcakes and the older girl had been listening in on the conversation with a high degree of mirth.

Jane had stopped listening, having decided that it would probably be a good idea to get a nametag and move her lover along. The quicker she could give the other woman a rundown of the social hierarchy from her high school days, the sooner they could leave.

Then Mike and Danny decided it was as good a time as any to start playing superheroes and were shuffling underneath the table (scaring half the people sitting around it when they bumped into them). The four adults blinked in confusion when the table started shaking slightly and the tablecloth started wiggling back and forth. Debbie and Eddie jumped when Mike rolled out from under the table with a yell and then ran off with a laughing Danny in tow.

“Crap!” The 15 year old exclaimed, rushing around the table with a hysterical Sarah in her arms (the girl found her brothers’ antics absolutely _hilarious_ ). “Here, take her!” She all but shoved the toddler into Maura’s arms and ran after the twins. “Mike!”

“ _Okay_! Well, we… should probably get moving! Don’t wanna keep the nametag line held up.” Jane cut into the slightly awkward silence, slapping a sticker onto her dress and then another with the word ‘geek’ onto her wife’s chest. Maura looked somewhat scandalized at the blatant groping, but then smiled amusedly when Sarah reached down to get the sticker and stuck it to her cheek. “Bye!” The detective quickly pushed the doctor along, sighing in relief when they were out of earshot from the other couple.

As they weaved in and out of the crowd, almost being run over by their excited twins and their pursuing sibling – Jane cackled maniacally when the boys dove between Liliana Ancelotti’s legs, sending the shrieking woman careening onto the improvised dance floor and toppling a number of people as she went – Maura spotted the refreshment table and rushed over to grab a plastic cup.

“Oh, I’ve always wanted to go to a high school reunion with a punch bowl!”

“There’s a jell-o mould over here, try not to hyperventilate.” Jane mocked, but the doctor wasn’t listening, as she was busy explaining to little Sarah that she could not have some of that pink drink.

“Bud momma!” The little blonde whined with a pout and Jane watched fondly as Maura explained very carefully and very patiently that the ‘pink juice’ was in fact _not_ juice, and that Sarah should have some water or orange juice instead.

Then she spotted another of her high school nemeses out on the dance floor and grimaced.

“Why do you look like you ate something fowl?” Kenzie asked, stopping next to her adoptive mother and retying her ponytail that’d come undone while she had been chasing the twins.

“Over there; purple dress with the big boobs?” Jane said, indicating with her head.

“Humm, I see her.” The teen nodded. “Is that your _bête noire_?”

The detective raised an expressive eyebrow. “Been hanging too much around Maura, have you?” The girl stuck her tongue out. “If that means former BFF, then yes, that would be Emily. And where are the boys?”

“Is that the one that dumped you in the 8th grade? Angela told me all about how you were dumped by the big boobed Emily.” The dark haired girl explained with a grin at her mother’s sharp look and took a hefty swig from a water bottle. “And they’re over there by the loudspeakers. They were highly fascinated by the vibrations…” She chuckled, pointing to her left.

The detective chuckled when she spotted the twins having an impromptu dance party by the loudspeakers and then turned back to her daughter. “Well, you know… Who would need me when you can get any guy on the planet with those _things_?” She paused when she saw a nice-looking man approach and kiss her former BFF. “Aww, even Steve Sanner… He was so nice…” She sighed loudly.

“Aww, Jane…” Kenzie laughed, patting the woman’s shoulder in what was supposed to be a comforting gesture, but her mother knew it was more mocking than anything else.

“Oh crap, they’re coming this way!” Jane made to grab Maura and urge her away, but only got as far as touching the woman’s elbow before Steve was calling out for her.

The 15 year old teenager smirked wickedly at her mother’s predicament.

“Hey Steve! And Emily…” The fake cheer was evident in her voice.

Maura looked away from the punch bowl to her eldest daughter and raised a questioning eyebrow. The girl snorted and shook her head.

“Jane, it’s been too long!” Emily greeted, moving in for a hug that the brunette returned albeit a bit stiffly.

“I hear it’s Detective Rizzoli these days…?” Steve queried with the friendliest grin.

“Yeah, yeah… And this is Dr. Maura Isles-” She was interrupted by the appearance of Giovanni who gave Steve a pointed look.

“I know right? Real waste bro…” He shook his head and sighed.

“Keep walking Giovanni!” Jane growled, just as little Sarah flicked a lemon slice, that she’d somehow retrieved from the punch bowl, through the air at the mechanic’s head.

“Sarah!” Maura admonished with a stern look at the same time as the lemon landed with a wet plop on Giovanni’s shirt.

******

 

Kenzie watched her blonde mother scold her pouting little sister with an amused smile. Maura had sat her youngest daughter on the table, well away from the punch bowl, and gently explained that throwing fruit was not the way to get attention or make annoying people who had wanted to ‘lick her all over’ vacate the premises. Sarah just pouted and whined when her mother produced some wet wipes from her miniscule purse – how _anything_ fit in _there_ Kenzie would never know – to clean the sticky punch from her hands.

“I think she’s tired.” The teenager offered, moving closer to the pair. “Little miss had an _exciting_ day…” She grinned at the sulking toddler, taking one of her hands gently into her own. “And she’s wearing a pretty new dress!”

Maura watched them adoringly; Sarah puffed out her cheeks and huffed some more before relenting and making grabby hands at her older sister and wiggling her little body in a plea to be picked up.

The dark haired girl chuckled and took the little girl into her arms and bounced her a few times. “How about we call Mike and Danny to destroy the jell-o mould?” She suggested. “Do you want some jell-o?”

The 2 year old nodded enthusiastically and finally smiled at the mention of jell-o.

“Okay then! Give momma a kiss, because I know she is sooooo _not_ upset that you threw a lemon at Giovanni…” Kenzie grinned cheekily; Maura pretended to be highly affronted but then leaned over with an amused chuckle to receive her kisses from her giggling daughter.

Just then, the twins came barrelling over with flushed cheeks and big smiles and proceeded to tell their sisters how the loudspeakers tickle your hands if you touch them and to demonstrate the _awesomest_ dance moves they had created for Gangnam Style.

The medical examiner frowned at the mention of the _godawful_ song that had been playing non-stop over every _single_ radio station in the city of Boston for the past few weeks – she much preferred being subjected to her sons’ newfound obsession with the Crazy Frog version of Axel F (she would _never_ admit, to _anyone…_ _EVER_!, that she actually found the tune quite catchy).

Maura watched her sons wiggling their butts and waving their arms about for their dance moves and laughed. Kenzie grinned her way and then directed the boys’ attention to the jell-o mould. The excited 5 year olds crowded the table and then proceeded to poke the floppy orange dessert to make it jiggle back and forth. Sarah giggled gleefully and then beamed widely when her sister scooped up some of the jell-o into a plastic cup and gave it to her.

The doctor would have been mildly horrified at the lack of manners and disregard for public health her sons were demonstrating by grabbing handfuls of the bouncy jell-o and stuffing it into their own plastic cups, if not for what she overheard a smirking man in a suit say to her wife.

“Well look who Stevie found! Roly Poly Rizzoli! I almost didn’t recognize you. I hear you’re a security guard or something…”

Jane rolled her eyes in annoyance. She had been enjoying catching up with Steve; they had been talking about their jobs and their families and Jane had been reconsidering her previous complaints to Maura that the night would be a total nightmare of relived high school drama and would most likely end with faces stuffed into the food and a few people in jail.

And then _Rory Graham_ had to show up and ruin her good mood.

“She’s a _Detective_ …” Maura interrupted with a scowl.

“Don’t bother- This is Rory Graham… And now my night is complete!” Steve gave her an apologetic look and Jane grimaced.

“If I had a nickel for every time a girl said that to me… _Yeah_!” There was even a good old-fashioned celebratory fist in the air. The detective would have rolled her eyes – _again –_ if not for her adopted daughter sidling up to her and throwing him a severely speculative look.

“Dude, you’d be further down the black hole of debt than Portugal and Greece _combined_ , because no self respecting woman would ever get ‘all up’ in _that_ …” She dismissively gestured the man’s way. “And you would have a hard time paying for that expensive suit and that awful cologne.”

Sarah stuck her tongue out showing support for her older sister’s assessment.

Maura, who was usually the one who observed politeness towards others even if they were behaving rather poorly, couldn’t have agreed more with her daughters. Her face though, remained the picture of sophisticated neutrality.

Her lips _did_ twitch when Steve snorted and tried – and failed – to cover it up with a cough. He quickly excused himself, claiming his wife needed help, but not before he threw a wicked smile to his former classmate behind his friend’s back.

Jane grinned widely, showing her dimples, taking immense pleasure in watching Rory Graham turn several shades of purple.

“Who the _hell_ do you think you-”

“Oh my- Jane _Rizzoli_! _Wow_ , you came to one of our reunions! I heard you might…” Kate Graham had come bustling from the refreshment table when she’d seen whom her husband was talking to.

The detective’s grin turned into a full blown smirk. She had stood up to her full height to stop Rory’s, no doubt, angry threat to her daughter but now her night had taken a full 360 degree turn for the better. If Kenzie had authority issues that lasted for days, her issues with entitled pricks and queen bees the likes of Rory and Kate Graham could make the former look like a walk in the park.

“Kate.” She greeted, throwing a side glance to her eldest daughter who was still staring, rather unimpressed, at Rory.

The man, however, seemed to have forgotten that he’d been insulted as he took a sip from the drink his wife had just brought him. “This isn’t Stoli… Where’s the lime, babe?”

“Is this guy for _real_?” Kenzie uttered in surprise.

“Unfortunately yes. And she was the _queen_ of mean.” Jane explained to her wife who had raised a questioning eyebrow her way. She then noticed that her two sons had succeeded in completely demolishing the jell-o mould and were now happily stuffing the sugary goodness in their mouths. She chuckled and called them over.

“Look at that body!” Kate spoke up to get the women’s attention again. “You definitely didn’t have any kids, did you?” She asked with the sweetest _fake_ smile.

Jane refused to rise to the bait and laid a firm hand on both Maura’s and Kenzie’s arms to prevent them from jumping the other woman. “Well, I rescued a dog once and-”

“Rory and I have three, actually. Two boys and a little girl.” Kate interrupted with a superior air about herself.

“Uh huh, fascinating.” The brunette nodded with a contemplative look. “But I have four. Why don’t I introduce you?” She grinned at the dumbfounded look on the other woman’s face. “Children number 1 and 2…” She gestured downwards to the twins that had shuffled over to stand either side of her, still gobbling up the orange jell-o and looking up at their mother with curious expressions. “My rambunctious twins. Child number 3…” She tickled Sarah’s cheek, removing a wayward glob of jell-o, and giving her a besotted grin. “Who is not biologically mine, but still very much my little princess. And child number 4…” She threw her arm over the scowling girl’s shoulders and pulled her the slightest bit closer. “The adopted daughter with more authority issues than my mother has gossip magazines hidden under her bed.”

Kenzie scoffed and then grinned. Mike looked up at his Ma with a face full of jell-o. “Nana has loads of magazines. Like, this much!” He spread his arms wide, accidentally throwing a handful of jell-o onto a passing woman’s dress.

Jane ignored the huffing woman in favour of smiling sweetly at a highly amused Maura. “And then there’s the dog I rescued. And the massive, partial to British strawberries, tortoise.” She paused, throwing a pointed look at the other couple. “And there’s… Maura. The most beautiful, intelligent, wonderful woman with a brain full of encyclopaedias.” And she leaned over and planted a fierce kiss on the other woman’s lips.

As if he had a radar tuned for that particular interaction between the two women, Giovanni turned and saw what was happening. He threw his arms up in the air and shouted “ _YEAH_!! Get it!” over the din of the music, attracting _every. single._ person’s attention.

Kate Graham was so shocked, she fainted, faceplanting _right_ onto the punch bowl before anybody could react.

 


End file.
